From the barely audible to the highly melodic sound resonates in the contemporary gardenLesley Johnstone, April 23, 2007

Soundfield_Doug Moffat and Steve Bates_Quebec_Canada

The 8th edition of the International Garden Festival celebrates sound, one of the essential yet frequently overlooked senses in the garden experience. This edition includes fourteen outstanding contemporary gardens by designers from France, Germany, the United States, Québec, and Ontario.

While sound is an important part of how we experience the garden, we often pay attention only to birdsong or rustling leaves. In five ingenious new gardens, designers propose myriad ways sound may have an impact on visitors’ experience and heighten their awareness of the audible in the landscape. The result of collaborations between landscape architects, architects, and sound artists, the gardens become musical instruments in themselves, include sound elements activated through the movement of the visitor, or are pure soundscapes. From the electronic treatment of the sound of poplar trees to the harmonic resonances of sonic cubes in a water garden, visitors are invited to explore the landscape in new and exciting ways.

Pomme de terre_Angela Larocci, Claire Ironside, David Ross_Ontario and Quebec_Canada